{"id":3382,"date":"2026-09-16T08:51:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2026-09-16T09:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T09:51:14","slug":"student-stories-combining-ou-study-with-elite-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=3382","title":{"rendered":"Student Stories: Combining OU study with elite sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The flexibility of OU study makes it ideal for elite athletes who due to training and travelling commitments might find it hard to commit to face-to-face study. Don&#8217;t take our word for it though &#8211; here&#8217;s what Dominique Fortune (power lifting), Alice Gillan (tennis), Vicki Hoban (para equestrian) and Chris McCormick (freestyle skiing) had to say.<\/p>\n<p>To find out more about study sport and exercise at the OU visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?page_id=216\" >Study with us.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Study Like a Team GB Powerlifter | How I Train, Work &amp; Study Law at the Same Time\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FW1qjJ3PJzI?list=PLNdJKjahU-Fa2wuOEvmcoFv5FWdA2Qgi9\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Study Like a Pro Tennis Player | Law Degree &amp; Tennis Career: How Alice Balances Both\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fy1Ki-UFtG8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Study Like a Para Equestrian | How the OU Gives Me the Flexibility to Do Both\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2L88RnuEdKE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Where STEM meets the slopes | Study Like A Freestyle Skier\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DpOgBdjqiXU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The flexibility of OU study makes it ideal for elite athletes who due to training and travelling commitments might find it hard to commit to face-to-face study. Don&#8217;t take our word for it though &#8211; here&#8217;s what Dominique Fortune (power lifting), Alice Gillan (tennis), Vicki Hoban (para equestrian) and Chris McCormick (freestyle skiing) had to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3382"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3389,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions\/3389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}